Helicobacter pylori is a spiral-shaped gram-negative bacterium which may cause chronic gastritis, peptic ulcer disease, and/or gastric neoplasia. In adults of industrialized countries, an estimated 0.5% of the susceptible population becomes infected each year, although the incidence has been decreasing over time. The organism may asymptomatically colonize humans. In suspected Helicobacter pylori-associated disease, the noninvasive stool antigen or urea breath test is recommended. If patients fail to respond to treatment and antimicrobial resistance is suspected, a gastric biopsy, gastric brushings or gastric aspirate may be cultured to attempt to recover the organism for antimicrobial susceptibility testing to assess for resistance.

Culture-negative results may occur due to the fastidious nature of the organism. Delays in specimen transportation will decrease recovery of the organism. Culture should be set up as soon as possible following specimen collection. Antimicrobial therapy may render the culture negative.

Due to Helicobacter pylori'sfastidious nature and slow growth, it may take 7 days to recover the organism and up to an additional 21 days to perform antimicrobial susceptibility testing when requested.